Early India Jaunpur 1/2 and 1 Tanka (Nasir al-Din Mahmud Shah) 1440 to 1456
Jaunpur is a city and a district located in the eastern part of the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Chris sent us a picture of his neat Jaunpur half tanka. This coin dates to about AH850 or about 1450AD.
Chris did an excellent job with this coin. Not only did he supply superb photographs, his research led him to translating the text: 'mahmud shah bin ibrahim shah sultani' and 'khalifa abu'l fath.' There is an interesting example of such a translation for a similar tanka on the WorldofCoins.eu web site.
These are not expensive coins. You can find them on eBay selling for $5 to $20 US dollars.
A tanka will weigh around 9.5 grams, while a half tanka will weigh around 4.8 grams. The coins are made of a debased copper-silver alloy known as 'billon'.
CoinQuest believes that Indian (and Chinese) coins will be the next big expansion in numismatics (coin collecting). So if you have one of these coins you might want to hold on to it. They might be selling for ten times these amounts in a few years. This, of course, is pure conjecture. But it is certainly possible.
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Coin: 14171, Genre: Islamic Hindu Buddhist, Timeline: Early/Medieval
Created (yyyymm): 201303, Last review: 201605
Appearance: Normal round coin Metallic brown Metallic gray Letters: Flowing style
Years: sort: 1440, filter: 1440 to 1456
Image: ancient_india_jaunpur_falus.jpg
Tags: encircled slicing scripts captials beading curvy period letter gramm waves circal wavy swirls periods rings monograms 4th ind part wavey curves com scribble twice tanka inde billon capitale logograms centered logogram lettering 2nd hindu initials shah numeral india aribic circling curl arabia encircles waive wave certer circel encircle gram swirl lining ringed centers twirly circumference bowed beaded encircling numerals slash curly centre character ring curlicues lined waving lines curved grams imgur caligraphy point hindi inscription capital two circles characters loop capitol bar circumscribed mahmud swirly curving circumscibed ramtanka dots circuit gramos beads last arab tonka monogram points off squiggley slice circlet crossbar curve circle curlycue offcenter bars squiggles arabian slanted initals letters sqiggles 1st arabic pearl loops swoosh bead line pearls curls one circular incircled squigle ramatanka ones nasir squiggly dot outlined theta scrip inscriptions circled outline 3rd scribbles slant arabesque jaunpur din lettered center offset dotted script outlining squiggle parts calligraphy initial
